Cartoon by Alex Bowman for Our Daily Planet

As we wrote earlier this week, the Trump administration rolled back an Obama-era rule that had forced coal plants to treat wastewater with more modern, effective methods in order to curb toxic metals such as arsenic and mercury from contaminating lakes, rivers, and streams near their facilities.  But this is just the latest in a four-year campaign to tear down our environmental health and safety rules.  

According to The New York Times, by last July, the Trump administration had rolled back more than 100 environmental rules — dismantling our country’s major environmental and climate policies.  As The Times put it, the Trump team has “weakened Obama-era limits on planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and from cars and trucks, and rolled back many more rules governing clean air, water and toxic chemicals.”  This week’s reversal, when combined with all the others, makes one wonder just who is the EPA protecting?  It’s not the public.  What does the EPA stand for?  Right now, it’s the polluters.  To see the full list of rule rollbacks, click here.